City law firm Fox Williams LLP has appointed financial services and regulation specialist Peter Wright from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as a partner in its Financial Services Regulatory team.
Peter Wright is one of only a few lawyers to have conducted enforcement actions for the FSA in the Upper Tribunal, the High Court, Magistrates and Crown Courts. He also often appeared as an advocate for the regulator before its Regulatory Decisions Committee and in hearings at the High Court and Upper Tribunal. Before joining Fox Williams, he spent five years with the FSA as a leading member of the regulators enforcement legal group. He also has considerable experience in handling complex authorisations, change in control and approval applications.
Fox Williams Senior Partner, Tina Williams, said that the appointment was a direct response by the firm to the increase in enforcement activity within the financial services sector and wider business environment.
“The FSA has warned that authorised firms risk enforcement action if they do not have tight enough procedures”, she said. “Regulated firms and individuals are being put under greater scrutiny and we are seeing a real need from our corporate and individual clients in the sector for specialist knowledge and expertise in this field”.
Peter Wright said that the regulatory climate was becoming increasingly intrusive. “We are in an age of increased regulation and intervention and we are seeing fallout as a result of the financial crisis”, he said. “Regulated firms and individuals are acutely aware that this is an age of increased regulation and supervisory oversight. I anticipate that the regulator will be increasingly proactive in taking action against senior individuals responsible for managing financial services firms“.
Peter Wright will lead Fox Williams’ Financial Services Regulatory team.
